The Perfect House
The Perfect House
R | 01 February 2012 (USA)
The Perfect House Trailers

Three unique horror stories connected by a bookend story tells of the horrifying past a young couples potential dream house has endured.

Reviews
Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall
ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.
Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies
Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.
Nigel P This anthology film starts in a refreshing manner. A standard family emerge from their home in sunny suburbia to have dinner at a neighbours'. Whereas often the family would be swapping cutesy witticisms with each other, this one is arguing and cursing before their own front door is shut behind them. As it turns out, this family returns to feature in the last of this trio of tales involving various bloody misdeeds that have occurred in the basement of this house over the years.Of the three stories, the first is an enjoyably perverse, open-ended piece in which hints are given about possible unsavoury relations between four family members involved in a séance.The second is my favourite, and features a gleefully animalistic character who keeps his 'guests' in two cages. One, he abuses regularly but keeps alive – she is his 'audience'. The second cage is used far more regularly, as the unfortunates he brings to that one don't live for very long after he begins to systematically torture them in various graphic ways. The relationship takes on an almost humorous familiarity before it, too, ends with no real sense of closure.And to the third story, which deals with the original family being tortured also, in various horrifying ways – perhaps the worst is the daughter of the house stabbed multiple times and then thrown into a bath of lemon juice. Without any real narrative, however, this emerges simply as scenes of torture for the sake of it.There's no real conclusion to the overall story either, which is disappointing, other than now, in the present day, someone has actually brought the property, and already there is a body in the basement … This is an odd experience. At turns gratuitous, funny, but ultimately fairly plot less.
ms-omen73 I have been reading about this film on numerous sites for a few months now and the variance of opinions has shown itself to be as wide as the Grand Canyon! That, to me, is a sure sign I need to watch something for myself to see which side of the fence I fall on, one of my nerdy idiosyncrasies. So I was pretty excited when I found out that Wild Eye Releasing had picked this one up for distribution and would be soon available. Then lo and behold the sky parted, the shafts of light beamed down upon my doorstep one morning recently, and shone brightly on a wonderful little package from the great folks over at Wild Eye! It was like Christmas morning and the mailman had become Santa! I hurried inside feeling a bit giddy with anticipation, quickly tearing into the box with the relative care of a 3 yr old, (angles voices cascade through the air), when what do my wondering eyes see, but 11 dvds tucked nicely in box in front of me!!! Okay so maybe that was a bit much but hey it was pretty awesome and I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of this one included in the titles! If you haven't heard of this one let me fill you in. The Perfect House is an anthology film that has 3 main shorts, and they are all tied together under the guise of a newlywed couple, searching for their dream home, and they think this could just be The Perfect House for them! See each short is set inside the home at a various time period, with a different family, or cast of characters, suffering varying horrible fates, all of which we get to relive as the newly weds and their seriously over sexed real estate agent move from area to area of the home. Lets do a quick breakdown of the tales:The Storm~ A family of four seeks shelter from a raging storm in their basement. Quickly we see the cracks in this family and realize its not the weather they should be afraid of... Chic-Ken~ we find ourselves witnessing the execution of one mans grand plan to thin the heard with the help of his caged, captive muse. This one begs the question how well do you know what your neighbor is doing behind closed doors?? Dinner Guest~ what starts out as a friendly offer to break bread amongst neighbors escalates to something much more sinister, that will leave one family wishing they had stayed in and ordered pizza! The Perfect house has got some attention grabbing names attached to it like Fellisa Rose (most notably of Sleepaway Camp fame, which if you were like me, scarred you for life with something you had never before even contemplated lol) John Philbin (The Return of the Living Dead) and Jonathon Tierston (also of Sleepaway Camp) all giving this one cult appeal right from the get go! All of them performed well but Fellisa and Jonathon both individually were stand outs their personal performances. I was also pretty impressed with relative new comer Holly Greene. All in all the performances across the board are pretty good, with a few better than others, a couple that are just entirely lack luster, but it all balances out pretty well, as the weakest tend to be very small bit players. As a whole I thought this was a smart film, and I really enjoyed it. Often in anthologies the thread that holds the stories together making them relevant to one another is tenuous at best, but this offered stories that really did flow well within original premise of the film. and when you get to the real heart of the film its all about appearances of suburban normalcy and what that facade may actually be hiding, making for a pretty interesting and thoughtful watch (especially if you enjoy looking into the deeper possible meanings of films).My personal favorite short of the anthology has to be The Storm. A great example of how things may appear one way, when in reality they are really something very different. It was smartly done, with some nice twists, and changes in perspective as you peer into their lives, as witnessed by each member. Its a nice paced psychological horror piece that left me shaking my head with admiration!I thought the film, as a whole was pretty good ( id even say worthy of popcorn!). I think if I hadn't read so much on this one first I probably would have enjoyed it more though. I read over and over that it was a gore fest from start to end and it does have more blood and gore than the average film, it wasn't what I was expecting in that department. However that doesn't mean lacks gore it just wasn't the over the top effects I had imagined, but gore hounds will admire the second piece in the anthology which offers up some really meaty moments in practical effects that are sure to catch your "eye":! This is a film I definitely would recommend, the cult names alone make it worth owning! Past the names the film is a well written introspective look at suburban living that will leave you thinking about what your neighbors may really be up to and what the hell they think about what it is your up to! Every family has its secrets, and every home helps keep them... The Perfect House...HeatherOmen TheHorrorNation.net
ms_sdak First off, I am NOT a fan of torture movies. Ones like Saw, Hostel and especially Seven. However, unlike those movies, this one actually didn't bother me (Seven bothered me for weeks). I think the reason is the other ones had seriously disturbed individuals who got off on torture. THAT bothers me. I don't want to watch a sicko consciously torturing people. That's a little too real life for me.That said, the reason this movie stands out is because it's the lingering evil in the house which infects the characters. As other reviewers have said, there are flashbacks that tells the history of the house and each one as gruesome as the next. I particularly liked the one which has the girl locked in the cage, mostly because she brilliantly escapes.The only qualms I had was the Realtor and the doofus at the end. Ugh. Way over the top. Oh yes, and the weed eater. Having actually used one, the plastic cord would have already dissipated. Unless it was made of wire. Then nevermind.If you like a little gore - okay a LOT of gore - in your horror movie, this should fulfill your appetite.
rushknight Most directors have a goal in mind when they make their movie, and if the movie does what it should in terms of entertainment, then we call that movie a success.Unfortunately for this film, the director makes the mistake of trying to disturb you and terrify you with graphic scenes of torture and gore.Ho hum. It's been done before, and many times even better than this.Disturbing the viewer is a good goal in a horror flick. But extended scenes about torture and gore bore-me-half-to-death. When I can flip forward through entire scenes and be like, "Ok, so long story short, she dies this way, he dies that way, killer does this, killer does that.." and get the entire story without actually needing to watch it, then we have a very shallow idea on the screen indeed. I can literally skip entire scenes and miss nothing, and the rest of the movie still makes perfect sense. In other words, there is no point to this movie except extended scenes of suffering and gore. You may skip them or watch them at your discretion, but why bother watching them when they really add nothing? It's really just more gratuitous than effective, and if you are the sort of person who actually enjoys watching it then I suggest you get your head checked.
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